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Great Bento Ideas: Halloween bentos from Japanese blogs, 2010 edition

Halloween is over, but here's one more round of spooky charaben, this time from Japan.

I misspoke the last time when I said there seemed to be more Halloween bentos coming from non-Japanese bloggers and bento enthusiasts than Japan. Many Japanese bloggers posted their Halloween bentos over the weekend, or I just missed them previously. I've tried to pick the works of charabentoists that aren't that well known yet - people who haven't been picked up by the media in Japan or elsewhere, or published a book of their own.

What's Halloween without ghosts? Here are little ghosties made from quail eggs that have been squeezed a little on the pointy end to make a 'tail'. This bento comes from ichigomama.

ssmama gives complete instructions for making these cute ghosties on Cookpad - in Japanese, but you can follow the step by step instructions. (She uses hanpen fishcakes, but try white sliced cheese instead. The pink cheeks are ham, and the black parts are nori seaweed.)

Next, some real character charaben! The first one is by mihhon, an old school Mickey Mouse as the Sorcerer's Apprentice, done as an onigiri with a cheese and nori seaweed hat, plus a smaller mouse in purple mashed potato.

There has to be at least one Hello Kitty, and this one is very cute indeed, with a purple potato peaked cap. It's by mihochin.

This is a rather obscure character, called Yuppii (it's the mascot for a regional television station) but who cares - it's so cute! This tour de force is by ramirami.

The Nightmare Before Christmas is, of course, a perfect subject for a Halloween themed bento. This one is one of the best ones I've seen, by mahiromama. Look how neat the cut nori work is on Jack Skellington's face - and how about the neat use of a spider shaped pick as his bowtie?

Speaking of amazing nori cutwork, how about this glowing haunted house (nori on slicd cheese) by mayoko? She says she's not good at nori cutting, but I beg to differ. Just look at those tiny ghouls and things in the windows!

And last but certainly not least, this charaben artist, hanamama, really outdid herself this year it seems. Just look at all the Halloween bentos she managed to create - 10 of them!

So that's it for Halloween this year. Maybe you can challenge yourself to do a special bento next year. Of course, Christmas and Chanukah are just around the corner too... (Chanukah bento? Haven't seen one of those yet.... ^_^)

Look for more Great Bento Ideas next week, when we will return to 'regular' (not charaben) bentos.

(If you want your idea to catch my eye by the way, the best way is to join the Just Bento or Just Bento Bento Gear groups on Flickr and post them there. Don’t forget to post a link to your blog in the description if you have one.)

(Below is a message in Japanese for the bloggers I featured in this post.)